Samsung Unveils Exynos 980 Processor with Integrated 5G Modem

For long, Samsung has used its Exynos lineup of processors in select markets while prioritizing smartphones with the popular Qualcomm made CPUs to regions like North America and parts of Europe as well as Asia. However, it seems like those who are used to Exynos variants of Samsung flagships may have some good news in the offing.

Samsung has just announced a new 8nm chipset known as the Exynos 980. This will probably be used with mid-range smartphones and tablets, but the real highlight here is the presence of an integrated 5G modem, saving Samsung the trouble of adding a separate 5G modem for future mid-rangers. This will theoretically offer data speeds of up to 3.55 Gbps.

At this point, Samsung hasn’t clarified if this CPU will be making its way to devices in the near future, but this could significantly revamp the company’s mid-range Galaxy A series of smartphones, which will be due for a refresh early next year. It’s also possible that Samsung will offer this with the Galaxy S11 in the first quarter of 2020 to offer an upgraded processor option for those who cannot get the top-of-the-line Qualcomm CPU variant.

Among other features of this chipset is a neural processing engine or NPU that’s around 3x faster than its predecessor. The Exynos 980 uses a combination of two high-performance cores and six efficiency-oriented cores to offer a proper balance of performance as well as energy conservation. This chipset is also complemented by a new image processing sensor which can support mobile cameras of up to 108MP.